Thad Cochran Beats Tea Party Challenger Chris McDaniel

A surprise assist from African American voters helped keep the Tea Party from seizing control of Mississippi.

Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight has the crucial details...

Tuesday night, Republican Sen. Thad Cochran defied the polls and defeated tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi Senate primary runoff by a 51 percent to 49 percent margin. Cochran couldn’t have done it without expanding the pool of voters, and in the last three weeks he did just that.

The NY Times expounds on McDaniel's seething anger at his party...

Mr. McDaniel, speaking in Hattiesburg, was angry, and he did not hesitate to say so. “There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats,” he said.

He accused Mr. Cochran of abandoning the conservative movement. “So much for principles,” he said.